This all sounds very good, so we thought we’d give it a try… The Cuil-website looks very modern, and seems to be a little inspired by the Google page. The makers of Google always have chosen for a Spartan look for the landing page, trying to set as few links and words as possible on it. (Some weeks ago there was lot to do in the press about Google not willing to place an extra link on the landing page).

Cuil has about the same philosophy about that; displaying as less words and links as possible, the homepage is a black background with a logo and about 3 links. (of which the about-pages was actually not a link, because it didn’t work and showed us a 404-page).

But never mind, a search engine is meant to search, not to tell a fully illustrated history about itself. So we gave the search function a try…

Cuil claims to search about 121,617,892,992 pages (stated on the landing page), which means there is an enormous database behind it. Thing we immediately missed when searching was the option to search only in your own language. (Dutch in our case). We opened the options-page, but there wasn’t the possibility to do so.

Therefore our search for a web designer, gave us several pages to look at, but when we would be looking for a web designer for a rl company, I don’t think any of those would be contacted. This because of all results being pages which origins were spread all over the world.

Afterwards we tried looking up our favorite rock group, resulting in a page telling us that due to the overwhelming success they “would be back soon”… So far for the first test…

Nevertheless we returned somewhat later, trying to search for a packaging machine. (trying to simulate what a company here in the Netherlands could be looking for). We typed in “Palletwikkelaar”, and got only 4 results on the first results page, stating they’d found 1999 results… Way less then Google, MSN or Yahoo finds, and in our opinion also less accurate as these do…

Therefore I think I’ll agree with what they wrote on ZDnet.nl; hadn’t it be better that the people behind Cuil had launched it as a beta? And in our opinion; having it launched a little more modest?

At this moment I will just stick with my old trusted Google, which loads faster, gives a better overview and above all; is more accurate. But I suppose this surely will be continued…

After having logged in with our Google account, we could make an avatar. The basic avatars variate from cartoon-like figures to “normal” looking avatars. Once we had an avatar we began making a room…

When making a room you can choose from several designs, again with a width variation; from a tropical island to an apartment. We choose the last type, and started decorating. In our inventory, we found some furniture, but not exactly what a modern minded guy would use in his apartment. Therefore we went shopping in the Lively shop, which is web-based. You buy something there, and afterwards it appears in your inventory.

This was something we found a little disturbing; the fact you continuously had to switch windows (or tabs in your browser), going from the shop page to your lively interface. We had opened the Lively interface in a single window at first (a kind of pop-up that is), but when clicking the button to go shopping, suddenly it switched back to the browser window.

Once we had found everything we wanted to put in our apartment, we started placing our brand new virtual furniture. The interface used for the placement and rotation of objects was good, although we would suggest adding a kind of “snap to grid”-system, as also a clear indication when something is turned 90 degrees. At this moment when you place your furniture and have to rotate it, you think you have putted it down right, but when looking from another point of view, suddenly it all seems to be standing wrong… So you start over again… This would be easier (and in my opinion not necessary) when you had that grid and 90 degrees option.

One suggestion however we still haven’t talked about: we would like to see that also the keyboard is a possibility to navigate your avatar around in the virtual environment. At this moment, everything is controlled by your mouse, which isn’t always as handy as it sounds… Surely when you use Second Life a lot, or just are a game player, it suddenly is strange to do everything with the mouse, where in those two situations you use a combination of mouse and keyboard.

Generally seen, we had a good experience with this beta, and think there is a lot of potential in it. Surely because they announced that in some time it would become possible to make user generated content… We’re looking forward to the following update.

I was at the Relay for Life event that was held June 19 and 20 in Second Life, and was simply amazed. I started at the sim Heroes 16, where one of my best “SL-friends” Talia (together with others) builded the archery range of Robin Hood. After having tried to aim but always missing the target, I joined her and some others at the side of the path that goes through all the sims of this event.

At 11 am SLT the survivors (of cancer) and caregivers walked the opening lap. This was kind of overwhelming… avatars kept coming and coming… sims almost crashed because of too much people there at the same time… Also the organizational talent behind this all was impressive; notices were send out right on time, when a sim was almost going to crash there was set up a detour in no-time,… the organization really did a wonderful job!

Afterwards, at 12am SLT the people that builded, created and organized all events and scenery’s walked a lap. Over 80 teams consisting of several people to dozens of people walked in the parade. It was really wonderful to see how many people putted in a lot of effort and time in order to accomplish this.

A few days ago I already posted a preview with some pictures of buildings on the scene, but seeing everything “in action” was more impressive…

After this lap, I putted on my virtual roller skates and started “rolling” around. It was fun to do, and especially the themed laps were sometimes real funny… Special hats, rolling vehicles, special shoes,… several themed laps were held, some more crazy then others.

I also like the virtual art; some people really make wonderful sculptures in SL. At the silent auctions at RFL, I saw a sculpture of a saxophone player. At first it was still affordable, unfortunately for me, it went up very fast, and out of budget… On the other hand I was real glad to see how this creator made several k’s of Linden Dollars for RFL with his sculpture.

Another impressive thing was the live broadcasted radio. Some real good DJ’s and interviewers entertained you some more while you were visiting the builds.

It was for me one of the most impressing and nice experiences I had in Second Life so far, if not the most impressive. At the moment this post was written, the counter stands at L$51,268,958… Congratulations to all people working on that project!

If you missed this years’ edition, be sure you make it in 2009!

This year’s edition is held this weekend. We already went over once, and were really amazed by what people accomplished. From Robin Hood over to Hansel & Gretel over to Science Fiction scenery’s… The builders have completed a wonderful “Quest for a cure”-themed project !

All info can be found on the American Cancer Society Website

We have made some screenshots on our trip… But make sure you go over yourself and see everything!

Relay for life in SL

Relay for life in SL

Relay for life in SL

Relay for life in SL

Relay for life in SL

Relay for life in SL

Relay for life in SL

We want to let you know that the High Definition version of Runescape has become available for all, and is out of beta. Now both free players and members can enjoy runescape on full screen, and in a wonderful interface. In my opinion, the game now finally has made the necessary step to attract lots and lots of players.

(Go to read more to see the Youtube movie)

When I joined Runescape, it already was a miracle… So many possibilities and skills in a online game, browser-based! But when years went by, other games were developed and launched and most of them had better graphics. For online gamers of “this generation” (the ultra-skilled, swearing 15-year old guys that play the same game each day for 8 hours; quote of the Company of Heroes developers), a game only is attractive when it has high detailed graphics, where the “veteran” gamers are already happy with a good storyline and gameplay.

Now, both veteran players and the newbies online will be very pleased. The cities, monsters and players now look really good, and maybe most important; you now can play it in a full screen mode. Only thing we would like to see added is a follow-cam. You know; the kind of camera that follows your avatar from behind… (the veterans just got something new, and seems they have spoiled us too much, we’re already asking for more)

Although, I’m not sure how other runescape players will use the new high definition version. You used to play with a helicoptor-view, and I’m not sure if players will really use all graphical freedom immediately… However; Jagex did a great job; a fun-to-play, which is available for free (with some limits) that looks real good…

This is the movie they released to announce the high definition version:

If you have any suggestions for the links and downloads, feel free to leave us a message!

In my opinion, this is the best way to describe the result Linden Labs & IBM booked last week. Developers of Linden Labs and IBM managed to teleport succesfully an avatar from the Second Life grid to a grid of the open source community.

Only the avatar was teleported, the inventory, clothing or apparel weren’t. And it was only an experiment, “normal” users can’t use this feature yet. Why is this so important then?

Well, in my opinion, this is an important step towards standards for virtual reality. We aren’t quite there yet, but at least the companies behind these virtual environments have proved they want to make it possible to go from one to another.

I do think we may make a comparison to the internet itself. The universal use of the internet is only possible because all webpages, webservers and webbrowsers are compatible with each other. If this wasn’t the case, you would have several networks next to each other, and you would need a different viewer for every “net”.

This is also the current situation with virtual reality. There are several systems running next to each other, and for each system/community you need different software in order to be able to use it. In my opninion, this is the weak point for virtual reality. There are so many different virtual environments, that for someone that isn’t familiar with this subject, it is harder to get in. Also, when some of your friends are in Second Life, and other on Entropia Universe; are you gonna make yourself an account on both ?

With this evolution, the day that you will be able to teleport from one virtual environment to another comes closer, making it more accessible for people, making it universal, and creating a bigger potential and making it more attractive to businesses.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful that because of universal standards for virtual reality the community providers of today become companies like webhosting companies… only providing space for you to build your own space, instead of also controlling many of the things happening in virtual reality ?

We aren’t quite there yet, but I know I will be one of those telling their children “I remember the day the guy on the news told us about a new invention they called HTML…” Maybe we’ll all add “… and I also remember the day virtual reality was divided over several communities, and not just one big grid as it is now…”. Who knows… I’m sure this will be continued…

This is the video report Torley Linden made on the experiment:

First of all you can now select multiple options, by using the control key. This is easier than having to do them all one by one. Also the possibility to add a caption to an image is a nice new feature.

All new features are pointed out in this movie we found on the wordpress site:

On the forum of the Dutch Tribal Wars community, several times there was a request for a mobile version of the game. Each time the moderator-team answered this wasn’t a bad idea, but because of the minority of persons wanting to play the game on their mobile phone or PDA, there were always other, more urgent changes.

After some testing, I find a way to play the game on your mobile phone. This is how you do it…

First of all you need to minimize the time needed to load your village(s). Therefore it is best you switch to the classic village overview, instead of the graphic interface. Secondly, you need a browser that allows you to view “normal” webpages. (The website of Tribal Wars doesn’t exist in a mobile version).

Therefore, download Opera Mini and install this on your mobile phone. (You can download Opera Mini at http://www.operamini.com/).

Ok, now you’re all set to play Tribal Wars on your mobile phone. Just open Opera Mini, go to the Tribal Wars website (www.tribalwars.net for English, www.tribalwars.nl for Dutch) and log in. You will need to first zoom in on the log-in form, because Opera Mini will show you a resized version of the website.

With some zooming in and out, you will see it is perfectly possible to play Tribal Wars on your mobile phone. Only thing that didn’t work on my mobile phone is the map, but even the forum and tribe pages work perfectly.

When you’ve forgotten to change to Classic Village overview, you also can play tribal wars on your mobile phone. The difference is that the images in the village overview will not be animated, and it will take longer before everything is loaded. To open a certain building, you will need to click on the level standing next to it.

Have fun!

(Tested on a Nokia 6234, with Opera Mini v 4.1.11355, Vodafone Mobile Broadband)

The past 6 months Developers’ Selection was visited by thousands of people, a result of which we are proud of.  However, because the website was growing, it was for us harder to keep the page up-to-date.

Therefore, we decided to change the page into a blog, using the Wordpress-system. In this way it will be easier for us to keep the page up-to-date. We have chosen the most basic design for the page available, in order to keep the page loading fast for everyone.

Another thing we planned but never came to, was making the page available for mobile devices. In that way again we could keep the page up-to-date in an easier way, as also our visitors could read our comments, reviews and previews at any time they want. We’re glad to announce that together with the new wordpress-system we installed, we also installed some plug-ins making the site available for mobile devices. So go ahead, and give it a try; www.developers-selection.nl should now also be readable in an easy way on your mobile phone or PDA. Depending on how frequently this is used by readers, we will look for a more accessible URL… :)

Also content will change a little; we will bring you a wider range of subjects, although everything will be related to the internet… :) We’re not planning on making reviews of hardware and such.

Thanks for you continuous visits to our website, and until next time!